Hurricanes eliminate Capitals in Game 5, advance to Eastern Conference final

Chip Alexander, The News & Observer on May 15, 2025

Published in Hockey

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Alexander Nikishin, at last, has played his first NHL game for the Carolina Hurricanes — in the Stanley Cup playoffs, on the road, against the Washington Capitals.

The big Russian defenseman will have a lot of memories from a debut long awaited by Canes fans, but the best will always be it came in a 3-1 victory that lifted the Hurricanes into the Eastern Conference final.

The Canes, after beating the Caps in five games, will face the winner of the series between the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs, with the schedule to be released later by the NHL.

Andrei Svechnikov’s goal with 1:59 left in regulation pushed the Canes to a 2-1 lead and was the game-winner. On a rush into the Caps zone, Svechnikov took a pass from defenseman Sean Walker and ripped a sharp-angle shot from the bottom of the right circle past goalie Logan Thompson, Svechnikov’s eighth goal in 10 playoff games this season.

After the Caps pulled Thompson for a sixth attacker, Seth Jarvis found the net with 26 seconds left to make it 3-1 in Game 5 and it was soon time for the postgame handshakes.

Jordan Staal scored for the Canes and Anthony Beauvillier for the Caps in the opening period. But it went to the third period a 1-1 tie as the Caps tried to ward off the end of a marvelous season that had Alexander Ovechkin pass Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time goal scorer and Washington win the Metropolitan Division.

For the fifth straight game, it was goalie Frederik Andersen of the Canes matched against the Caps’ Thompson. Both were forced to make some scrambling, high-quality stops and be quick in net, and Andersen was tested a lot in the first 10 minutes of the third as the Caps made a push trying to break the tie.

Nikishin, who came to the Canes after the KHL season ended in April, was placed in the lineup when defenseman Jalen Chatfield was unable to play. He was paired with defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere much of his first game despite some concerns about on-ice communication — Nikishin speaks very little English — and also had shaky moments in the defensive zone at times.

A Nikishin turnover early in the second period, misplaying a backhander trying to clear the zone, resulted in the Caps getting an apparent goal by Matt Roy. But the goal was overturned on a coach’s challenge by the Canes’ Rod Brind’Amour, and the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Nikishin began to settle into the flow of the game and make more confident plays.

Having both teams score in the opening period was a first in a series in which first-period goals have been scarce.

Staal ripped a shot past Thompson after winger Jordan Martinook won a puck battle along the boards and got the puck to the Canes captain. Staal’s 37th career playoff goal came on a shot over Thompson’s shoulder.

The Caps had four shots in the period but Beauvillier’s quick instincts allowed him to collect his goal. Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin tried to make a D-to-D pass to Brent Burns, but the puck hit the end boards and bounced back off the side of the net. Beauvillier hopped on the loose puck by the post and poked it past Andersen.

Both teams then had a slew of chances to take a 2-1 lead, only to be denied.

With 36 seconds left in the first, Canes winger Logan Stankoven was looking at an open net off the rebound of a Taylor Hall shot. But Stankoven couldn’t get enough on his backhander, which appeared to glance off Thompson’s stick.

Two minutes into the second period, the Caps believed they had broken the tie after the Nikishin turnover when Roy bombed a shot from the right circle. But the Canes used their timeout and then issued a coach’s challenge that the Caps were offside entering the zone before the Roy shot.

The decision: the Caps’ Connor McMichael was ruled offside. No goal. No Caps lead.

The Canes came within an inch of taking the lead on a power play in the final seconds of the second. Jarvis had a shot hit the crossbar, then ricochet off the post.

Before the power play, Nikishin had his most productive shift of the game — with Ovechkin on the ice — and got off a couple of shots. The shift ended with Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk tripping Gostisbehere.

Andersen made a sparkling save on a shot by a hard-charging Pierre-Luc Dubois early in the third, only to have Martinook called for charging. The Canes then killed off the penalty and Thompson had to turn back a short-handed attempt by Jarvis as the Caps power play expired and it stayed 1-1.

Midway through the third, Nikishin had the puck taken from him in the Canes zone and was knocked down. He got to his feet and flattened McMichael.